The invention relates to a vending product vertical stacking rack for an automatic vending machine which is suitable for handling items such as large and heavy bottles or cans which are cylindrical and identical in shape.
A so-called "product vertical stacking rack" is well known as a commodity rack for handling such commodity items as described above which are cylindrical and identical in configuration. Such a conventional commodity rack includes a rack housing in which the commodities are stacked in a straight line one on top of another or in a staggered arrangement and a flipper or a flipper-type product delivering mechanism is provided at the product delivering outlet in the lower portion of the rack housing so as to control the delivery of the products.
The above-described product vertical stacking rack is advantageous in that it is simple in construction and accordingly low in manufacturing cost. However, it is disadvantageous in the following respects. First, a heavy weight is exerted on the lowermost item. That is, the sum of the weights of the remaining items above the lowermost item is exerted on the lowermost item. Accordingly, when the lowermost item is discharged from the rack housing, it strikes against the product delivering mechanism and the various items may strike against one another. If the products are heavy bottles they may be damaged or broken by the ensuing impact when the lowermost bottle is discharged.
Furthermore, a product vertical stacking rack in which products are stacked vertically along two straight lines or in a staggered arrangement and right and left locking members of the product delivering mechanism are alternately moved up and down is known in the art as one example of the product vertical stacking rack described above. This conventional product rack is advantageous in that delivery control can be more readily provided than in the above-described product rack in which the product items are stacked vertically on top of one another. However, that product rack is still disadvantageous in that since the products are stacked vertically along two straight lines or in a staggered arrangement, the width of the rack housing is necessarily large. Furthermore, as the product items are stacked one on another in the rack housing, when the lowermost item is discharged from the rack housing, the remaining items fall successively by their own weight. Therefore, after a person pulls out one item, he can often pull out the remaining items dishonestly. Thus, the reliability of this arrangement in terms of theft prevention is low.
The above-described damage or breakage of products can be prevented by providing a separate holder for each item in the rack. A product rack in which product items are separately held, termed "an elevator mechanism-type product rack" is known in the art. In this conventional product rack, the items will not strike against one another and accordingly are not broken during delivery. However, the drive control for the elevator mechanism is quite intricate and expensive. Furthermore, it is necessary to provide a special lock mechanism for the drive motor of the elevator mechanism which is moved downwardly by one step for every product delivery operation with the elevator mechanism maintained at the stop position between delivery operations. If the lock mechanism becomes inoperable, the elevator mechanism will move downwardly by weight of the products as a result of which all of the product items are discharged. Accordingly, such a product rack which when it fails tends to discharge all of the products is not suitable for an automatic vending machine. In addition, in the case of a multi-section-type automatic vending machine, it is necessary to provide a special drive motor for each of the columns thereof as it is necessary to stop and lock the drive motor separately for each product selection.
Accordingly, an object of this invention is to eliminate all of the above-described difficulties accompanying a conventional product rack. More specifically, an object of the invention is to provide a novel vertical stacking-type product rack in which the product items are not damaged or broken during the delivery operation, it is impossible to pull the items downwardly when the product rack is in its standby state so that theft can be positively prevented, the construction and drive operation are simple so that the reliability of the machine is high, and the width of the rack is small.